One of my mentors, Seth Godin, who I was fortunate enough to work with through his FeMBA program in 2010, speaks a lot about organizations’ (and individuals’) propensity to do what’s “safe,” or at least perceived safe, to avoid risk and potential failure. The problem with this approach is if you spend so much of your time trying to do what will surely not fail, you’ll never create anything innovative, and most likely, your organization will slowly be replaced by others who are willing to Poke the Box and create something unique.

This is why we created FutureNow, a program that helps organizations get out of their everyday routine and think about what could be for their workplace. Our first event of the year is happening next week, June 17-19 in San Francisco and we’re focusing on future leadership. We’re taking a small cohort of engaging leaders from diverse companies (Apple, UPS, Wells Fargo and more) to innovative, future-focused organizations who we believe aren’t so worried about the “safe” future, but are invested in understanding what the LIKELY future is and responding accordingly…or even being part of paving the path to that future.

One of those future-oriented host companies is Achievers – a company whose very mission is “To Change The Way the World Works.” With a core belief that employees ARE the key to any company’s success, they provide software and services to engage and align teams. Our visit with them will be multi-layered—we will not only be talking to their leaders about what they do and the insights behind their customer platform, but we’ll explore how their systems and values show up in their own internal team culture. How are THEY preparing their employees to be their future leaders in an uncertain market and world? As a quickly-scaling organization, we’re curious to know how they intend to expand and grow and keep their employees engaged. We’ll be speaking with Steven Parker, Head of Business Transformation, Razor Suleman, Achiever’s Founder and Chief Evangelist, and Patrick Quirk, their President and Chief Executive Officer. Leaders to leaders, we’ll learn from each other.

We’ll also be talking to leaders at eBay,Everwise,Box,Standard Chartered (SC Studios) and others about how they are identifying and developing their future leaders. We’ll collaborate to create bold, tangible steps on a path that’s not risk-free, but trades the familiarity of the past for a future of rich possibility.

As prep for our event, we’d love to hear from you (please comment!) what do you think the biggest challenge is for YOUR organization with regards to developing your future leaders? And if you want to join us on our next Inspiration Journey in NYC (Sept 30-Oct 2), send us a note!

Today’s the day to think about tomorrow – let’s help each other build the future now.